Birthright of the Dwarves is a grandmaster quest, and the final quest in the Rise of the Red Axe series. During the quest, King Veldaban decides to take action against the Red Axe rather than waiting for them to strike.

Contents

Official description

Newly crowned King Veldaban thinks that Hreidmar and the Red Axe mining company must be planning another attack on the dwarven city of Keldagrim. As someone who has already defeated several attempts by Hreidmar to take over Keldagrim, you are the only person that Veldaban trusts to deal with the Red Axe before they strike.

Only a king

Veldaban announces his plan to take down the Red Axe

Speak to King Veldaban on the top floor of the Keldagrim Palace, above the Trade Octagon. If you can't find him, simply log out and log back in. Ask him what he'll do now that he's king, and he'll explain all the problems he's having ruling Keldagrim, both domestically and externally. Then ask him what he's going to do about his problems. He'll say that his main concern is the Red Axe; he's worried about what Hreidmar has been doing since his last plot was foiled. Veldaban wants to use the Dwarven Black Guard and his new allies among the trolls to attack the Red Axe's base, but he wants your help to do so, as you're the only one he trusts.

There are three issues that he wants you to address:

Firstly, Lieutenant Brae has rounded up some suspected Red Axe spies, which she's holding in Keldagrim West's records chamber. She wants you to find out if they're really spies.

Secondly, he wants you to go to Taverley Dungeon and kill some chaos dwarves there to see if they have any clues as to what the Red Axe is up to.

Finally, he wishes for you to go to Yanille, to see if the Watchtower Wizard can lend any help against the ogre shaman's memory-altering magic with their experience in defending against the ones in Gu'Tanoth.

Veldaban gives you a royal dwarven seal to mark you as his agent in these tasks. You do not need to go back to him after each task is finished; you can finish all three in one go to save some time.

Investigating the spies

Veldaban says that Brae will explain how to go about investigating the suspected spies. He also adds that if any are found to be working with the Red Axe, the penalty is death. Any that have committed treason but cannot be linked to the Red Axe should be exiled as far from Keldagrim as possible.

Enter the records chamber cave to the west of the bank (along the west wall). Inside you will find Lieutenant Brae with four prisoners: Brendt, Klaas, Vigr, and Grundt. Brae will explain that she cannot hold them for much longer without charging them with a crime, and asks when Veldaban is coming. You tell her he sent you instead, and show her the seal. Ask her who the suspects are.

Vigr

Talk to Vigr, who is a tradesman, selling warhammers in the northeast room of the palace's ground floor, on the west side of the river. He was a member of the Red Axe prior to their banishment, but it is unknown if he still in contact with them. Vigr will refuse to be questioned, and will only do so if there is physical proof of his involvement.

Go to Vigr's workshop in the northeast corner of Keldagrim palace's western ground floor. It is currently bedecked in Orange Flame banners and occupied by Sieglinde, who doesn't object to the place being searched. You find a bundle of letters hidden under the furnace. They are correspondence between Vigr and a Red Axe spymaster, ceasing around the time Veldaban took the throne. Take these back to Vigr, and he will admit that he was a spy, but that the Red Axe abandoned all of its agents in Keldagrim after Veldaban was crowned. He claims that if he was contacted again, he would refuse to spy for them, and insists he is no threat to Veldaban.

Brae asks you to pass judgement at this point, and Vigr begs for mercy, asking you to send him into exile instead. The choice is up to you.

Klaas

Klaas is a member of the Keldagrim Monarchist Society, but he's been calling for people to overthrow Veldaban on the basis of him not being the rightful king. This is treason itself, but it could be instigated by the Red Axe. Klaas insists that the other Monarchists agree with him, and that calling for the overthrow of an "usurper" is not treason. His reasoning for Veldaban's illegitimacy is that Veldaban has not dissolved the Consortium, and that he keeps advisers around him. He says there's been no real change since Veldaban took the throne, and that the people should depose him for the rightful king. He denies Red Axe involvement, stating that they would be worse than Veldaban, and that Meike knows he wouldn't work with them.

Go to the King's Axe Inn, south of the bank, and speak to Meike. Make sure you go through all the dialogue including asking her if he got the idea from the Red Axe, which should come up after you've asked her about the idea. She knows that Klaas was asking for a revolution, but she says that being involved with the Red Axe doesn't fit the Klaas she knows.

Go back to the records chamber and talk to Klaas again, telling him that Meike has vouched for him. When Brae tells you it's time to pass judgement, he will reiterate that he doesn't recognise the authority of the king. You can choose to let him go, execute him or exile him.

Brendt and Grundt

Brendt and Grundt are traders who were arrested on Jatizso after they mentioned the Red Axe while picking up an ore shipment from King Sorvott. The length of time that they stayed on the island, after their business was done, raised suspicion of them being spies. They both claim they were there to pick up an ore shipment they'd bought.

Ask Brendt why King Sorvott said he'd mentioned the Red Axe, and Brendt will explain that the king was mistaken by the nickname of their ship's captain, named Redaxe for his red, axe-shaped beard. Cross over to Grundt and ask what the captain's nickname was, and he'll say that the captain was named Sigridsdottir, a female name, and he doesn't know if she had one. When you ask him about the King's claim, he'll stammer his way through an explanation about carrying a literal red axe.

Go back to Brendt, and ask him what weapon Grundt carried on Jatizso. He isn't sure, and doesn't think that Grundt even took his weapon out of his cabin the whole trip. Speak to Grundt about the captain again to reset the dialogue options, then confront Brendt with Grundt's belief that the captain was called Sigridsdottir. He'll insist that Grundt is mistaken and that the captain was called Redaxe. Brae will call on you to pass judgement, first on Brendt, then on Grundt.

Brendt is a spy, and is unrepentant about it. Grundt is also a spy, but he begs for his life if you choose to execute him, claiming he will never work for the Red Axe again. Once you have decided the fates of all four suspects, your task here is finished.

Taverley chaos dwarves

Items recommended: Combat equipment

A map of Taverley Dungeon

Veldaban is assuming that any chaos dwarves found in the world were created by the same process that the Red Axe used, and therefore must be linked to the rogue corporation. He wants to make sure that the Red Axe is not operating so dangerously close to both human and dwarven lands. Your mission is to go to Taverley Dungeon and keep an eye out for anything suspicious while you kill the chaos dwarves there.

Enter Taverley Dungeon and proceed to the southern end, where chaos dwarves reside. If you can use the pipe shortcut (70 Agility, boostable), it will save a lot of time to get to the dwarves. Kill chaos dwarves until Ikadia the Exile appears, who tells you that she has the information you seek. She will then teleport away to the chaos druid area in the north-eastern corner, so go there and talk to her again.

She will offer to give you the information if you beat her in a duel. She is a level 126 mage with 10000 life points and can use abilities in combat. Her weakness is arrows, but she is fairly easy to defeat with any combat style. Once you have defeated her, she will give you the information you need and happily ask you to kill her, but you have the option not to do so.

Yanille's Watchtower Wizard

Items needed: 5 free inventory spaces

Restoring your memories of a forgotten tale.

A familiar scene

Veldaban knows that you once used a potion to kill the ogre shamans under Gu'Tanoth. He wants you to ask the wizard for that help again, to defend against the memory-wiping shaman employed by the Red Axe. The wizard is located on the top floor of the Watchtower. If you haven't done the Watchtower quest, simply climb up the trellis on the north face of the tower for access to it.

Mention to the wizard that you need to fight another ogre shaman, except this one is capable of erasing memories. Shocked, he will exclaim a "regular" magic ogre potion won't do the trick and the memory-wiping must be countered somehow. The wizard will give you a memory wand to calibrate first before using it against Grunsh. You may not have a follower out during this step. Use the wand on all the strange items (beers and kebabs). They will release four fragments, which will speed around the area. Catch each fragment and then investigate each red memory void. A message will appear, telling you which fragment to use on the item. A total of four fragments are needed for each category. If you get it wrong, you must collect the fragments again.

After completing the puzzle, a cutscene will occur where the player sees the Red Axe gathering an army. Once again, Grunsh will find you eavesdropping and, instead of erasing your memory, will calibrate the wand.

Return to Veldaban with the wand to show him the Red Axe's plans. The wand cannot be banked.

The assault on the Red Axe

Items recommended: Combat equipment

An army of trolls and Black Guard ready to assault the Red Axe

Once you have finished all of the King's tasks, return to Veldaban and after updating him tell him you will meet him in the Barendir tunnels.

To reach the tunnels, talk to the Dwarven Boatman situated just north of the palace to travel to the area located South of Dondakan's rock and proceed to run east to the Barendir tunnels. Enter the tunnels and run north east past the sparkly crystals and enter the cave at the end. Talk to King Veldaban, at the far north of the cave, and he will instruct you to talk to Nulodion next to him. Nulodion will give you explosive gears to sabotage the cannons during the assault. Fire the cannon that is pointed at the wall, and there will be a cut-scene showing the battle against the chaos dwarves.

You cannot bring a familiar to the lava flow mine, as the game will prevent you from doing so. If you die, simply re-enter the way you came in. Your gravestone will be a short distance away in the tunnels.

To reach the first two cannons on the middle section, run to the western part of the arena and stand behind the pillar. The cannons will fire at the pillar, and it will take two hits to be knocked down. When it's knocked down, click on it to walk across and you'll be able to disable the first two cannons. Just ignore the monsters attacking you. You may choose to kill them, but you will be under constant cannon fire. After you disable the second cannon in the middle platform, there will be another pillar on the east side of the middle section. Hide behind it until it also gets knocked over, then cross over to the far side and disable the last three cannons.

Fighting through the mine with Veldaban

Eat whenever you have to, and be sure to bring plenty of food. Using Protect from Missiles here helps significantly, as the cannons can deal up to 4,400 damage per hit. Since the enemies here aren't required to be killed, just wear any lifepoint boosting armour you have, and equip an arcane, elysian or divine spirit shield, as these will help shave off some of the damage the cannons will deal. Grab at least 75% adrenaline so that you can utilise Devotion and Reflect to greatly reduce damage from the cannons. Resonance also allows for heavy heals.

Place the explosive gears on the cannons, then run away from them quickly as they will explode for up to 5,000+ damage. Stay away from the broilers too, as they will heavily damage anything nearby when they explode if struck too much by the cannons.

Grimsson is confronted and escapes via a minecart.

If you die, your gravestone will appear somewhere in the Barendir tunnel. Any cannons you have destroyed will be repaired. When returning, make sure you have space to receive the Explosive gear used to destroy the cannons.

Once the cannons are destroyed, head west and up a platform to confront Grimsson. He will flee in a minecart, and Veldaban will give chase. Pull the lever on top of the platform to raise the bridges, then jump in the remaining minecart to continue.

Repairing memories

Grunsh attempts to alter Veldaban's memories.

After getting on the minecart you will confront Hreidmar and Grimsson. If you find yourself outside, re-enter to see the cut-scene. Make sure you have your wand or the ogre will cast a spell on you and you'll be teleported out to the cave entrance. The ogre will attempt to plant false memories into Veldaban, but the memory wand will be used to stop it. After that, the player, Veldaban, Grimsson, Hreidmar, and the ogre will be dragged into the false memories.

Veldaban will "remember" fighting the trolls with a Zamorakian army of dwarves in the Battle of Barendir. Grimsson will remember being in the battle, slaughtering the trolls. Hreidmar will remember being told by Zamorak himself to take the throne for himself, since he is the rightful heir.

Veldaban's memory

The wand must be used on the royal Red Axe standard, the Zamorakian Chaplain, and the dwarf standing next to him, and the memories must be corrected like earlier in the quest. There are three of each type.

Grimsson's memory

Grimsson memories of what truly happened at Barendir are restored

After that, you will arrive in Grimsson's memory. There are six troll fragments and six dwarf fragments. Use the wand on the two trolls directly next to Grimsson. Dwarf Bone is the name of the large troll to the right of the Small troll, not an actual dwarf bone.

Grunsh's memory

Retrieving Grunsh's memories while he valiantly tries to destroy them.

Finally, the ogre's memory must be fixed. The wand must be used on each of the three dwarves in the room to release all the memory fragments. Grunsh will refuse to see his memories, so you must forcefully apply it on him. He will cast a spell that turns a "pure" memory into a dangerous form. If you grab any dangerous memories, the existing memories captured will all be released. Dangerous memories turn back into standard memories after a few moments. There are three of each type of memory.

Do not gather dangerous memories. This is vital as it will reset your progress with any previously gathered memories.

Once all memories are caught in their "pure" form, they must be used on the voids like earlier in the quest.

After this, everyone will wake up. You will learn that Grunsh's memories are also wiped clean, and believes that Hreidmar saved him from a snowy place. After that Veldaban says you will need to kill Grunsh, and once again you can choose to let him live or to kill him.

After this point, the wand is no longer necessary in the quest. Players are unable to bank this item, so the only option for getting rid of it is to destroy it. Or, you can keep it and use it on Veldaban after the quest is over to restore memories of Hilda.

Veldaban of the Red Axe

Hreidmar's palace

Once you enter through the doorway directly behind Veldaban, you will come to an empty version of the Keldagrim Palace. Going up the stairs on either side brings you to an identical trade floor populated only by chaos dwarves dressed up as Red Axe directors and traders, all speaking gibberish regarding Zamorak and chaos. Before you speak to any of the directors, you must attempt to open the door on the east side where a chaos dwarf is, who will refuse to let you in as you are not a member of the Red Axe. Then, speak to any Red Axe director and tell him that your friend wishes to join the Red Axe.

The director wishes to be more powerful than the others so your character then proposes that you kill the remaining 7 directors scattered around the floor. Once they are all dead, speak to the director again and he will pronounce Veldaban a full-fledged member of the Red Axe (you can kill any 7 directors, including the one you spoke to, and the surviving director will make you a member of the Red Axe. It is also possible to kill the surviving director after). Continue through the door at the east of the floor.

The final confrontation

Items recommended: Combat equipment and food

Once the final battle has started, the cave at the end of the Barendir tunnel will lead directly to the top floor of the Red Axe palace. If you die during these battles, your grave will appear in the Barendir tunnel, as in the previous battle. If you wish to abandon the battle at any point and restock, simply go down the palace stairs and log out to the lobby. When you log back in you will be at the Black Guard quartermaster where you can access your bank.

The battle can be divided into three phases: the fight against Grimsson in his normal dwarf form, killing the first of the two chaos dwarf bosses, either Grimsson or Hreidmar, and killing the remaining boss. Once each phase is complete, it will remain complete if you leave and re-enter the battle.

The Butcher of Barendir

Grimsson throws Veldaban at you.

The fight will begin with a confrontation of the two. After a short cutscene plays, Grimsson will attack Veldaban. The Provoke ability can be used to direct Grimsson's attacks away from Veldaban, except when Grimsson is provoke immune.

Attack Grimsson but keep an eye on his adrenaline bar because when it's full, Grimsson will activate Provoke and do a charge attack that does very high damage very quickly. The player can counteract this with an ultimate ability or a stun. When Grimsson's adrenaline is at 50%, he will grab Veldaban for several seconds. During this time, any damage dealt to Grimsson will be redirected to Veldaban, so it is very important that you stop attacking during this period. After several seconds he will throw Veldaban at you, dealing a typeless 1000+ to you and 7500 to Veldaban. The damage to you can be circumvented by hiding behind a pillar, but Veldaban will still take damage. If Veldaban dies, the battle will restart.

The best method to separate Grimsson from Veldaban is to open the door to the throne room, get back a few steps, let Grimsson throw Veldaban at you. Veldaban will be thrown out of the room, quickly shut the door, which will make you stand between Veldaban and the door. When you open the door, you will be between Veldaban and Grimsson; Grimsson will still attack Veldaban with range, but it's not that deadly, you can finish Grimsson without taking any damage. Standing on the same square as Veldaban and using kick will also separate Grimsson and Veldaban.

Once Grimsson is dead, another cutscene will play. Hreidmar will grab a dragon staff, before channeling a spell to turn him, Veldaban and the deceased Grimsson into chaos dwarves. Veldaban will succumb to the spell, but does not fully turn into a chaos dwarf, so you only need to deal with Hreidmar and Grimsson.

Chaos dwarves!

Fighting the Colonel and the Director

You must now face both Hreidmar and Grimsson, and Veldaban will be incapacitated and unable to assist you. Each chaos dwarf boss is a challenging battle in its own right, so the usual strategy is to split them up and fight them one at a time. Once one is dead, he will not reappear if the battle is restarted, allowing you to heal-up between fights. The easiest way to separate them is to use the stairway: if you go down the stairs and back up, then Hreidmar becomes unaggressive, so you can deal with Grimsson first. The bottom of the stairway is also a safe spot where you can heal.

If you die during the fight, your grave will appear in the Barendir caves. Return to the Dwarven Boatman and travel with him, then walk east and enter the Barendir Caves. Your grave will be here. Remember if you take degradable armour with you, then take them as the three items you keep on death, otherwise they will degrade by 20%.

Chaos Grimsson

Grimsson fights with ranged and melee. He has two special abilities:

He can run around obstacles, preventing him from being safe-spotted.

When his adrenaline reaches 100%, he can "charge" the player, which means he can hit very fast and hard.

Grimsson can be killed using the same method as for the first fight. He can do somewhat more damage this time. When he has a full adrenaline bar a chat message will appear "Grimsson prepares to charge you down!" and he will push you around while dealing major damage. A way of avoiding most of the damage is to go down the stairs (or close the door with Grimsson on the other side) when it starts.

Chaos Hreidmar

He can summon chaos dwarves. He summons them in pairs of one cannoneer and one warrior. There is no limit to the number of chaos dwarves he can summon. He can also make the warriors flash red. When this happens, they will explode and deal heavy damage if they touch the player. They also lose 5000 health when they explode. If the player avoids them long enough, they'll automatically explode and die.

He can swap places with a cannoneer, no matter how far away it is. The player continues to target the square where Hreidmar was, which means the player no longer attacks Hreidmar.

When his adrenaline reaches 50%, he can use a special threshold ability that channels power to the cannoneers, which makes them hit harder. Unlike other threshold abilities, this does not drain his adrenaline.

When his adrenaline reaches 100%, he can heal himself and any chaos dwarves by up to 20% of their maximum health using a special ultimate ability.

There are two ways to separate Hreidmar from the minions. You can go down the stairs so that Hreidmar becomes non-aggressive, or you can stand in the doorway and close it when the minions are summoned. Kill the minions (avoiding the supercharged minion blast which can damage you through the wall and down the stairs), and return to killing Hreidmar (make sure the door closes before you go to fight minions or he will buff them).

When fighting Hreidmar, pay attention to his adrenaline bar. When it is full, he will attempt to heal himself for 12000 life points. This can only be counteracted by dealing a large amount of damage to him in a certain period of time. Ultimate abilities, such as Omnipower, and even some high-damage thresholds, are the best way to stop him from healing. He will also attempt to empower the summoned hand cannoneers in a similar manner, and likewise can be stopped the same way, by dealing a large amount of damage (this won't be a problem if you have used the stairway method to make Hreidmar non-aggressive while fighting the minions).

If necessary, it's possible to recover some health from the minions by using the adrenaline gained to activate Regenerate, Rejuvenate, or Guthix's Blessing. However this must be balanced against the loss of adrenaline for fighting Hreidmar.

The heir to the throne

The Consortium suggest that Veldaban step down as king, to which he complies.

After defeating Hreidmar and Grimsson, talk to Veldaban, who is kneeling in the throne room. Veldaban says that he doesn't like what he is turning into, and he requests for the player to kill him in order for the effect to stop.

You have a choice of either letting Veldaban survive or killing him. A cutscene will ensue where the trolls and dwarves bring down the statue of Hreidmar.

If you let him survive, then the player and Veldaban will meet the consortium and discuss who should be the king of Keldagrim. Again, the player has another choice of either letting Veldaban rule Keldagrim, or tell him to step down, letting the Consortium rule.

If Veldaban is killed, then you have the option of allowing the consortium to rule, or finding the true heir to the throne: King Drunken Dwarf III. If you let Veldaban survive, the next time you see him on the throne he will appear to be completely unaffected by the chaos dwarf transformation, indicating he's been able to successfully fight it off.

After choosing your options, you will finish the quest automatically. If your inventory is full after the cutscene, you can speak to a director to claim your rewards. You must have at least 3 free inventory spaces to claim them.

A further 250,000 experience in chunks of 20,000 to 33,000 experience, with requirements ranging from 81 to 95 Mining, when mining the ruins north of West Keldagrim. Boosts do work to mine ruins that are beyond your current level.

If Veldaban survives, the player can offer to use the memory wand to restore his memories of Hilda. He is initially reluctant, afraid of how much he may have made up about her but, if the player encourages him, agrees. He doesn't share his revelations, saying that it's between him and her memory, but thanks the player for doing so. Veldaban can be found in the throne room above the Trade Octagon or in the Laughing Miner Pub on the east side of the city, depending on the player's choice.

Achievement

Transcript

This article on a quest has an associated dialogue page.Click here for a transcript of possible conversations encountered throughout the quest.

Trivia

Upon completion of the quest the Adventurer's Log states, "I helped Veldaban defeat the Red Axe."

This quest ties for the highest skill requirement with Pieces of Hate (85 Strength here, 85 Thieving there). Despite its skill requirements, none of them are actually used in the quest.

This quest gives the largest direct experience reward of any quest, namely 200,000 Strength experience.

This quest was voted by players in a poll to be the first released of a trio of quests, the other two being the gnome and pirate series continuations.[1] Throughout May and June 2013, the community was able to suggest elements to include in the quest, and things not to forget.[2] In addition, there was a design competition for the monster that drops the dragon throwing axe, which turned out to be a chaos giant (not used during but after), as well as for the leader of the chaos druids, a woman named Ikadia.[3]

The large amount of post-quest dialogue could not be created within the designated development time, therefore it was released after the quest itself. However, due to spending a long time in localisation, the dialogue was not released until 11 August2014, nearly a year later.

The events of Watchtower are referenced during this quest, despite it not being a requirement.